Valkyries rout shorthanded Toronto Tempo to snap two-game losing streak

SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Valkyries are back in the win column.

Golden State had lost two games in a row coming into Sunday night’s matchup with the Toronto Tempo, but the Valkyries overcame a second-half deficit to win 96-79. The Valkyries had won a franchise-record nine in a row before the consecutive losses.

But facing a Toronto team that was missing All-Star Marina Mabrey and recent trade acquisition Aneesah Morrow, Golden State shook off a midgame slump to seal the victory late and move into a tie with Las Vegas for the second-best record in the WNBA behind Minnesota.

“We found six or seven players today that wanted to play with maximum effort,” Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said. “They wanted to empty the tank.”

Sunday also marked the return of Gabby Williams, who started the All-Star game a week ago but was held out of the Valkyries’ loss Wednesday at Phoenix for “reconditioning.”

The Valkyries’ Janelle Salaun led all scorers with 24 points off the bench for Golden State (20-9). Veronica Burton scored 17, while Williams and Tiffany Hayes each had 15.

Salaun wasn’t impressed, however, with the official scorer, who gave Kiah Stokes four blocks for the game. Salaun was convinced that Stokes, who was a game-high plus-30, swatted five shots.

“She had five blocks,” Salaun quipped. “It’s actually – it’s not good.”

Told about this, Nakase quickly fixed Stokes’ block total on her stat sheet.

Nyara Sabally led Toronto (10-19) with 19 points. Kia Nurse scored 16 and Laura Juskaite added 15.

The lighthearted postgame mood belied what became a tense environment at halftime when Toronto closed the half on a 12-0 run to trail by one point.

Toronto was without its All-Star Mabrey, who missed the game with a neck injury. Recent trade acquisition Morrow also missed the game due to return-to-play conditioning.

Nakase didn’t think Golden State fell asleep at the wheel, but she was thoroughly displeased with the level of effort she saw at the end of the half.

“They should bring it, or they’re going to hear something very uncomfortable,” Nakase recalled saying.

Despite being significantly shorthanded, Toronto was competitive for most of the game, building on its late surge in the second quarter to grasp the lead for a good chunk of the second half, including a five-point lead midway through the third quarter. A late-third-quarter run put the Valkyries up 67-61 entering the fourth.

Then Golden State took control down the stretch, lengthening the lead early and scoring 29 points in the fourth to ensure a comfortable final five minutes.

“She wasn’t happy with our effort,” Stokes said of Nakase. “So she kind of got into us in a timeout and was basically saying like, ‘Get it together or go sit in the locker room.’” And we’re all very competitive. We want to win, and that was just the little extra motivation we needed. But hopefully, going forward, we don’t need her to kind of like spaz out and get on us like that. Respectfully.”

The Valkyries’ first home game of the second half was attended by a sellout crowd of 18,064 fans.

Williams’ return

After missing Golden State’s first game after the break, Williams was a game-time decision and played 19 minutes in the Valks’ win after being listed as questionable before tipoff.

Nakase indicated that she would have liked to play Williams more but was held back by Golden State’s medical staff. Williams previously dealt with a back injury earlier in the season and missed a game against Connecticut on July 10.

“She looked great,” Nakase said. “I couldn’t play her that much. That’s kind of the protocol, which is really smart from our medical team, and so we really tried our best to manage it. The times that she was kind of rolling, (we let her go). I mean, shoot, she ended with a nice stat line.

“But more importantly, you can see her fight, her effort. You saw her getting a lot of deflections that led into transition opportunities. So that’s the Gabby that we miss, that activity on the ball, and then creating extra possessions.”

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